


Emptiness Unraveled

by Gwynevere



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-31 12:29:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13975164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gwynevere/pseuds/Gwynevere
Summary: Ages pass, children are born.One from ashes, another walks with criminals, the next holds her head high with royalty, and the last smiles at the normalcy surrounding her.Each possess a power that could either destroy the world entirely or save it from the soon to be rising threat.It's not so simple though, as they have to battle their own demons before they can battle Remnant's.





	Emptiness Unraveled

**Author's Note:**

> AN: So... it's been awhile. A very long while. And I promised I'd have something earlier but that didn't really work out. BUT I'VE FINALLY DELIVERED! The new and improved me and my writing. I hope you enjoy, and once again, sorry for my long absence. Please read and review if you have any problems or stuff, constructive criticism is welcome. I'll try to have a steady update schedule (although the time between updates will be long, at least it might be steady).

#  **_Prologue 1.1 - Lost_ **

 

**Southern Coast, Anima**

**1400, 97 AW**

**3** **rd** **Month of Fall**

 

_ She never would have thought things would turn out this way, with the curved blade of Remnant’s most powerful warrior shoved through her mother’s abdomen. A slick red, first smoothened, then left bubbling on the silver-blue sheen of their weapon from the heat.  _

 

_ She never would have thought that the warm heat her mother always gave off could feel so thermal and feral; an all-consuming blaze left in her wake to destroy everything that dare hurt her. The sounds of crackling wood and the smell of smoke stimulated all of her senses and left her gasping on her knees. _

 

_ She never would have thought she’d have to witness such violence so soon, especially geared towards her mother.  _

 

_ When Scarlet got home from her hunt to see her mother, she never would have expected to see the house ablaze. She never would have expected to find her mother pinned to the wall with blood dripping onto the charred floors. She never would have expected the fires that always protected her to end up consuming the only person she ever knew and loved. _

 

_ When a flash of silver erupted from the red cloaked woman’s eyes and left her head reeling. When her mother’s body fell limp and the arm that haunted her disappeared. And so when liquid gold seemed to seep out of Cinder and towards Scarlet, all she could do with all her training was cry.  _

 

_ Cry towards the murderer standing before here looking towards her with widened eyes. Cry towards the woman laying in a pool of her own blood. Cry towards herself for the pain and power coursing through her veins and melding itself with her aura. Cry towards the heavens for how unfair things were. Cry towards the gods to reverse events so that maybe she could arrive a few minutes earlier.  _

 

**_And when she was done crying, her slumped over body fell to the ground. Limp, just like her mother’s…_ **

 

**_One Year Later_ **

 

Fire. 

 

That was all everyone could see. A blazing, uncontrollable light of reds, oranges, whites, and blues. People  scattered in every direction, disordered and in search of hope, but it was pointless, they had heard the rumours. A fire that consumes everything and burns its own ashes until there is nothing left except dunes of greyed sand that can be seen from miles away. 

 

All of it came centered around one thing, one person, one  _ young woman. _ Destruction flocked to her like how the Grimm hunted for negativity. For all the people knew in their short time of meeting her, that is what she was. Grimm. Darkness incarnate, come to them to feast on their flesh no matter how much they had gifted to the beasts in the past. 

 

Nobody was safe from her gaze. She could melt you from the inside-out just by staring into your soul with her amber and verdant eyes surrounded by a white and red mask of a monster from legends and heroes. 

 

The scarred woman spared no one, and so all they could do was run. But a few chose differently. They chose to stay, to stay and slay the beast that dare terrorize their village. But all of them were unorganized fools. Never charging at once and only using stones or left behind hand-me-downs to duel her. Their skin boiled and their bodies slowly turned to ash when her blade slipped through them. 

 

The air snapped and fizzed around her as the conjured fires burned the oxygen from the surroundings within seconds. Blue licked and danced around her similarly coloured aura and singed the edges of her clothes. 

 

Screams of women and children alike filled the air and mixed with the cries echoing from the masked being. Strangled howls ripped out of the monster, its wings of fire spewing from their back. Salted tears evaporated into nothingness before they could even leave her eyes, their stale scent being overshadowed by the smells of scorched flesh and pestilence. 

 

Charred frames of houses barely stood as the fires continued to rage throughout the village. Empty shells trying to fill an emptier void. Possessions and riches succumbed to ash, leaving the already abandoned people with nothing but the dark mercy of the beast before them. 

 

Screams turned to coughs and cries as the stench of melting flesh entered the nostrils of strangers and family members alike. The winged death showed no bias. Fauna like her burned, and their ashes scattered just like the human’s were; finally in death, they could peacefully be together. 

 

Colorless and burned out embers flitted around the floor and to the sky; absolute chaos burned around what was left of the village until one, final scream pierced the air. And then: silence. 

 

Utter nothingness with a background of reds, blues, and greys. 

 

Cooled cinders stuck to the monster’s skin, a smoky black settling and forming to create an image of a demon summoned from the depths of Nebris. They coated the sides of its mouth and its tongue, slipping down its throat and cementing with its saliva. Dry coughs spit out of the fiery angel, blackened and wet ash exporiated onto the ground. Blue turned to red and red to nothingness as the fires burned away any oxygen left around it.

 

_ And with nothing to breath, the angel of chaos dropped to the ground in a heap of ash, darkened flesh, and tears. _

 

**_Nine Years Prior_ **

 

_ Salted tears slid down the young girl’s face. Her eyes were closed, eyelids shielding her warm amber and forest green eyes from the pain of the alkaline waters falling down her cheeks and dripping onto the wooden flooring. Fresh blood—the same colour as her namesake—flowed down her calf and soaked inter her socks, a scarlet stain forming in the white cloth. A dreadful cry split the peaceful silence of the cottage. _

 

_ “Mom!” Scarlet sobbed out. Her caracal ears twitched and twisted to face the outside sides as she continued to wail. It was only a matter of time before her mother came from her room with a drowsy look on her face and disheveled hair. _

 

_ “Yes baby?” Those nurturing words spoken in that familiar raspy voice were all that the young girl needed to begin calming down. The waterfalls streaming from her eyes slowed but still continued while she held her hand to her thigh. Quivering lips and one tentative look was all it took for her mother to hold her in a tight, loving embrace. _

 

_ No more than three seconds later the daughter’s cries ignited anew, fresh tears leaking out of her eyes and settling onto Cinder’s night shirt. _

 

_ “Mama!” She cried into her mother’s gown, shaking and sobbing while Cinder gently rubbed her back and made  _ shushing _ sounds into her ear. Slowly but surely Scarlet’s shaking turned to rustling and slow rocking back and forth.  _

 

_ “What’s wrong baby?” Cinder’s warm amber eyes gazed worryingly into her daughters green and amber ones. Red and puffy eyed, Scarlet slowly separated from Cinder’s body and looked down towards her thigh. Crimson liquid slowly seeped out from between her fingers and slid down her leg. A small groan slipped out from between her closed lips as she quickly covered it back up, spreading a bit across her skin. _

 

_ “It hurts mama… make it stop,” Scarlet whined out as her eyes slowly began to leak again, “make it stop mama!” _

 

_ “It’s okay honey, just let me see it and I’ll make it all better,” Cinder gently said as she shushed her, calming her daughter’s peril and slowly removing her hand from her thigh. Scarlet whined out as her mother poked and prodded at the gash in her leg. Blood oozed and fell out of it, slick and sticky all at the same time.  _

 

_ “See? It’s just a scratch… close your eyes and I’ll make everything better.” With complete trust in the dark haired woman above her, Scarlet closed her eyes and when she opened them again there wasn’t a single scratch on her.  _

 

_ “Wh-where’d it go?” Curious eyes looked expectantly up at Cinder. Nothing would ever take her wonder away about the things her mother could do. Miraculous healing, lighting a fire without anything for it to burn on, bringing thunderstorms that could blow the monsters away. Anything and everything she could think of, Cinder could do it. _

 

_ “It went somewhere far, far away. You want to know why?” _

 

_ “Yes yes yes!” _

 

**_“Because I’ll never let anything hurt you…”_** **_she muttered out, even though she knew she couldn’t protect Scarlet forever. No one could, only she could protect herself._**

  
  


The monster awoke with tears falling out of their eyes, solidifying within the ash and leaving as if they hadn’t been there.

 

“I thought you said you’d never let anything hurt me…?” It didn’t even realize it was saying something. Words were just falling out of their mouth, tumbling off of their lips and quivering in the breeze of ash and smoke. Its ash caked skin rippled and pulsed as it shifted positions. Arms and legs stiff with misuse and tiredness. The grey ashfall continued relentlessly, a blizzard of unnatural disaster. 

 

“Why would you lie to me like that…?” Nothing could have prepared it for the events that had transpired. Nothing could have prepared it for losing its mother. Nothing could have prepared her for the transition of human to monster; all because of one simple thing that happened. Nothing could have prepared her for being on her own in this world of ‘kill or be killed’, nothing except for her mother.

 

A barely clenched fist slapped against the ground, ash puffing up and into her face. Violent coughs ripped out of her lungs, more of it fell from her mouth and onto the ground; saliva and blood turned it into a muddy and murky substance. And even through all of that, no voice came to answer her questions. Proof, to her, that the gods had abandoned her.

 

“Water… I need water.” Survivability was all that fueled her at that moment. Her throat creaked and groaned as she got herself up onto her feet, a sound too similar to her mother’s; a feeling all too familiar hit her in the chest. Salted water slid out of her tear ducts and dried up in the soot pressed against her skin. 

 

Her legs shook and rattled while her muscles tried in vain to push themselves towards a limit that wasn’t humanly possible. Animalistic instincts pushed her forward, a desperate search for food, water, and shelter so that she could make it to the next day. The ears atop her head twitched and swiveled with the meager amounts of energy they had left, in search of danger. She already knew though, nothing was out there. 

 

A landscape of barren ash and indistinguishable scraps of houses that once held people. Families might’ve gathered there in the Winters for warmth. Farms may have been started in the Spring. Playgrounds and daycares were probably built in the Summer. Children played and jumped in the leaves their parents had raked up in the Fall. 

 

She stumbled through it all, raspy breathes tore her throat to shreds while her aura was too busy keeping her legs moving. Eventually the ash thinned to a light drizzle, being carried in the wind and to the trees. Fallen leaves of beautiful colours dulled with the thin layer of gray that settled top of them. 

 

As she broke through the treeline, her ears flicked forward and the sound of water hit her like a truck. There the river lay, swimming in soot. With the last reserves of strength she had, her mind  _ pushed  _ and the liquid parted from the solid. Stomach to the ground and face in the water, she practically inhaled it. 

 

_ And when she was done, her eyes hit the reflection and all that stared back at her was a mask of a monster. _


End file.
